Memory and identity in Total Recall and The Buried Giant

Abstract

As he is being injected for his memory implants he discovers he is a super-spy, his memories having been erased, that his wife Lori is also a spy but an evil one set to keep an eye on him by UFB Chancellor Vilos Cohaagen . And so, as they no doubt say in the publicity material somewhere, a journey for one man to discover the truth and fight for justice begins. Total Recall is thus about how your memory constitutes your identity and reversing memories can in turn change who you are and your purpose and mission in life.Quaid emerges from a soulless factory worker to a fighter for the right of the oppressed colony workers rights as a double agent. A lack of a past constitutes the lack of a shared identity and shared resolve to forgive and move on. Hence the amnesia between Axl and Beatrice also lends to a lack of depth in their relationship. The end of the novel suggests their separation as all the previous couples which the boatman had brought to the island had separated, and it makes the memory of their naïve simple and childlike love all the more poignant.